<p>Hi all</p>
<p>I'm a freshman in college right now, and for my college a good amount of sophomores live off-campus while a good portion stays on-campus. My friends asked if I wanted to live with them next year off-campus. I started thinking... what are some disadvantages of living off campus as opposed to on-campus and advantages?</p>
<p>Pros:
Much cheaper (at least at my school; I’ve heard it’s the opposite at some schools)
Freedom (no RA to nag on you about “come to this floor meeting to discuss diversity!”)
Quieter (at least where I’m living; where I was on campus last year people would be outside screaming at 4am… even on a wednesday)
Responsibility- paying bills, rent, etc (to me this is a plus, since I won’t go into the “real world” blind, and I’ll know how to handle this)</p>
<p>Cons:
Slightly farther distance than the dorms (I had to get a bike)
There’s more to clean; no housekeeping; no maintenance (if you’re landlord is good, that’s great, but I’ve heard of some terrible landlords)</p>
<p>That’s it. I absolutely love living off campus, even if I did enjoy my first two years on campus.</p>
<p>Thanks! When apartments close to you throw loud parties, do you usually hear them? Is it easy to befriend other people living in the apartments?</p>
<p>Pros:
You don’t feel like you’re living in public housing, complete with the kind of behavior associated with it
Can be cheaper, not always (e.g. at UMD)
Much more freedom than in a dorm, although obviously you still have to follow the rules of the property, landlord etc
You generally feel a bit more like an adult</p>
<p>Cons:
You’re farther from school
You’re the master of your own domain… meaning you’ve gotta clean your bathroom. But assuming you’re not a caveperson, this shouldn’t be too bad.</p>
<p>Dorms usually provide a higher level of security than do apartments. Some apartments, particularly high-rises, do have that additional security.</p>
<p>Sometimes off-campus housing is closer than the dorms.</p>
<p>Apartments may offer more flexibility as to when you can come and go. Some schools close their dorms for certain times of the year when you may want to be on campus.</p>
<p>OP- I’m not in a standard “apartment.”</p>
<p>I live in a house- we have the bottom, the landlord lives above us. So no one nearby has loud parties you can hear (noise stays confined to inside houses quite well).</p>
<p>Several of our neighbors are also college students, but I’ve never spoken to them.</p>
<p>Generally, you get more bang for your buck when you live off campus (more, nicer space for less money). It’s also generally more quiet, though this depends on your roommates and neighbors (you usually can hear through the walls!). </p>
<p>The distance is sometimes annoying. Even if you are within walking or biking distance to campus you can still feel “disconnected” from the campus culture and the people on it. There’s nothing like rolling out of bed in the morning and running across the quad or whatever it is you do, usually meeting a few people on the way. This is arguably worth the ****ty amenities and immature behavior.</p>
<p>Also, the legalities of living off campus can be stressful. Are you jointly or seperately signing leases? Is the landlord good and quick with repairs? I live in a group house situation - probably the most stressful of all living arrangements - and it’s definitely a bit nerve wracking every month to collect all the money for rent and utilities, and also nerve wracking when something breaks and the landlord doesn’t think said something is as important as you do. You just have to cross your fingers that everyone comes through (roommates with rent, landlords with repairs)! </p>
<p>Furthermore, chores can be stressful, depending on your roommates. Some roommates are great with dividing the duties and keeping the house nice looking, but with others it will be a constant battle to make sure the sink is not full of dishes and crap is not strewn everywhere and there is not constantly hair in every corner in the bathroom, etc. They key to this is agreeing beforehand that the house will be kept in a certain condition, duties will be divided in a certain way, and actively communicating and explicitly spelling out weekly duties (‘oh, we’ll all just clean up after ourselves’ NEVER works as a sole keeper of order).</p>
<p>Overall I think group living - in an apartment or in a house off campus - is a nice segway into the “real world.” The question is, do you really want the real world yet? Depends on your budget and how much space you like! :p</p>
<p>Thank you to everyone for your inputs!</p>
<p>Cons: having to make all of your own meals and food. I love walking 2 minutes from my dorm to the commons and having so much food readily available to eat with my meal plan.</p>
<p>Pros: cheap
healthier food if you can cook
no need to share bedrooms
quiet</p>
<p>Cons: it’s hard to konw someone is responsible before you live together; dividing housework is tough, it might turn frds to enemies
u need to get furniture unless ur apt is furnished, but in most cases that’s not gonna happen
further from sku, if u don’t have a car that may reduce your time spending on campus
greedy landlords can easily take some of your security deposit away</p>
<p>I agree with everything everyone else said but also if you live off campus then you can have your dog or cat there and in most dorms they wont let you have any animals (except for goldfish). You could even get a fennec fox. You could also have whoever over that you want to whenever you wanted. But if you live in a dorm and you dont like your roomie, you can just get another room, but if you get an apartment or a house then you are stuck there. And its further to have to walk to go to classes.</p>
<p>Seriously kollegekid, stay off the college life forum if you aren’t asking for advice for the future.</p>
<p>As a middle schooler, you know absolutely nothing about the differences between living on and off campus, so just can it and stop pretending like you do.</p>
<p>A con is that there is no housing authority to mediate your disputes if you were to end up having roommate problems, or much of a way to change roommates if problems arise since you’ll have signed a lease. If you are just living with your friends <em>in theory</em> that isn’t an issue, but it certainly could be. You get more freedom as someone else said, but that means the *******s get more freedom, too. There are other factors much more important than that, but after having a few nightmare roommate situations myself I would be reluctant to enter into that kind of a situation. Everyone already covered most of the other things I can think of.</p>
<p>For me, my priorities were to be within five minutes walk of campus and to not have roommates (both due to health issues I would prefer not to describe), and I was more willing to pay for a dorm and meal plan than what I would have had to pay for an apartment situation that met those priorities. Otherwise I probably would have lived off campus just to have more space. Another thing I considered was the security of the building, I am pleased with my dorm security and would not be willing to move into an apartment that did not have satisfactory security. That is one of the first things I look at in a potential building.</p>
<p>Get a revolver, that’s all the security you need.</p>
<p>Pros: It doesn’t feel like you’re in public housing, there aren’t as many immature kids that you have to deal with, generally cheaper, probably more freedom and flexibility. If you’re a more mature student, I would definitely recommend living off-campus</p>
<p>Cons: You have to pay bills and rent, there is no central housing authority to help you with roommate disagreements (at least as easily anyway), it could cost more, you might have to drive to get to classes(which serves as a plus for me, which is weird).</p>
<p>The general rule of thumb is that you don’t room with friends. Trust me, I made this mistake with my bestest friends and it turned into a disaster!</p>
<p>^ True 10 char</p>
<p>A pro is that now you get to eat whatever you want and you don’t have to eat weird food like mystery meat or vegetables.</p>
<p>A con is that you can’t make people think you’re cool by blasting up your music at 3 am because you’ll be living by yourself.</p>
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<p>And the food is a lot cheaper (sometimes even if you get food delivered every day, it is cheaper than the meal plan) and you don’t have to worry about expiring meal coupons either.</p>
<p>No one posted a con as it being more difficult to make friends. I have only spent a year at community college, but I imagine living in offcampus housing it’s a little more difficult to meet people. In dorms, EVERYONE is usually your age and goes to the same school as you. You are also in closer quarters, so you meet new people easier.</p>